Beautifully moulded in pale grey resin, Aires has captured all of the fine detail of the F-18 Hornet Ejection Seat.

Two complete seats are provided. The detail from the bottom through to the top of the seat has been faithfully reproduced. The drogue gun and barometric timer units on each side of the seat, as well as the harness power retract unit have been capture in fine detail. The prominent safety arm/disarm handle on the right hand side of the seat pan is accurately reproduced as is the seat actuating handle located between the pilots legs.

A nicely etched set of belts for each seat is included are included to be added to the seat and will add to the exceptional detail already provided. The belts will allow the modeller to position the belts however they wish to, but a word of advice, seat belts are usually only messy for a few minutes after the pilot leaves the aircraft. Ground crews dress the seat quickly and the belts are laid in a set pattern defined in a maintenance manual, so the front and rear seats should look identical.

The etched belts may need annealing over a flame first to soften the metal, as the metal belts need to be threaded through some very fine buckles. This is task that sounds daunting but really just takes good eyesight and patience. The end result is stunning much more accurate and detail then one piece metal belts or moulded to the seat in resin. Good modelling skills will be required to assemble the belts in this detail set.

This seat is entirely correct for US Navy and Marines Hornets, but the harness assembly is not although accurate for Australian F/A-18s as they have a different seat harness assembly. Australian seats have full length shoulder harness while the US Navy and Marines have the shorter harness that clips into their body harness.

Highly Recommended for skilled modellers.

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Thanks to Aires for the review sample

Text and Images Copyright © 2005 by Mick Evans
Page Created 26 December, 2005
Last updated 08 August, 2006

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